Spirits high at the opening event for the new playground!

We weren't blessed with the greatest of weather for our opening event, but it was a remarkable success with hundreds of members of the community including many of our sponsors braving the wet and wind to celebrate our achievement.  We hosted a hospitality tent for our sponsors, and at 12.30 p.m. Chris Wright (Chairman) and Hannah Price-Harries (Vice-Chairman) gave speeches before local children released balloons into the sky to mark the official opening of the new playground.  A tremendous day for the community of Old Coulsdon!

Our beautiful sensory garden in the playground

The Friends with a little help from some children in the playground helped to plant up the sensory garden in the playground yesterday.  The planting scheme incorporates specimens including lavender, lemon balm, lemon thyme, curry plant and rosemary, all of which are fragrant, interesting to look at and tasty.  We hope that this area of the playground provides rest and relaxation for children and adults in the playground seeking some quiet time.  The trustees would like to thank Crossways Nursery for their donation of compost, bark and bedding plants for the playground, and Woodcote Nursery for their donation of lavender plants.

Details of our launch party!

We are super excited about the official launch of our new playground on Saturday 10 September 2016 at 12.30 p.m.  We do hope you can join us to celebrate this huge community success.  Our event coincides with the Old Coulsdon Village Fair which takes place on the same day from 12 to 4.30 p.m.

Exciting times!

The Friends are delighted with the way the new playground is coming into fruition.  The new playground is the culmination of several thousands of hours' fundraising, consultation and design development by the Friends of Grange Park- this time given freely by a team of around 8 volunteers- and is not a council led project.  We have been advised that the works should be completed before the end of August 2016, dependent on the availability of various sub-contractors.  This should mean that our children are able to enjoy the playground before returning to school.  

New, inclusive playground to be built in Old Coulsdon THIS SUMMER!

The Friends are delighted that we can finally reveal that we have raised £100,000 in funding to build a new and inclusive playground in Grange Park this summer!  We owe great thanks to the support of our community, but also the significant pledges made by Biffa Award, London Marathon Charitable Trust and Macquarie Group Foundation.  Please see below for our press release which we have released today.